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ROW LETTER FINGER
BOT M MIDDLE
TOP I MIDDLE
BOT N INDEX
TOP I MIDDLE
BOT M MIDDLE
TOP U INDEX
BOT M MIDDLE
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Pooh-Bah
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Main Entry: peloton
Definition: in cycling, a densely packed group of riders who stay together for mutual advantage
Etymology: French `ball, heap'
If I tried to ride in a densely packed group we would definitely wind up in a heap.
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journeyman
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Very, very interesting. So it can be grouped in threes by noticing the finger used, and it can be grouped in twos by noticing the row. I like it.
Some people say camping is boring. I say it's in tents.
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If I tried to ride in a densely packed group we would definitely wind up in a heapIt's not so bad if you end up on top of the heap, Zed ... without the peloton on top of you.  [In Europe, that would be a "pelotonne", I assume.]
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the correct finger to use is the right index finger
See, just goes to show. Question Authority, or else.
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from French, peloton, platoon, ball, from Middle French, ball
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"peloton" ??? [7th position]
I’m probably stating the painfully obvious here, but, no doubt, ‘peloton’ came in seventh due to the fact that Lance Armstrong, an American, won the Tour de France (TdF) for a sixth time, breaking the standing record of five wins held by Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Induráin. Since professional cycling is not valued highly by the majority of Americans, most are not familiar with cycling’s terms. Armstrong’s fifth win was big, but his attempt at a sixth win pushed professional cycling into the consciousness of more Americans than ever before: thus the interest in the word ‘peloton.’
Definition: in cycling, a densely packed group of riders who stay together for mutual advantage
'Peloton' is indeed “a densely packed group of riders who stay together for mutual advantage.” The word, however, is not used only to refer to the riders of the TdF. In the English-speaking cycling world, ‘peloton’ is used to describe riders grouped together in any professional road race. Amateur cyclists also use the word to refer to any large group of cyclist riding together in training rides, rallies, or races.
‘Pro peloton’ refers to all professional road cyclists, especially those who race in Europe, whether they are racing at the time or not.
If I tried to ride in a densely packed group we would definitely wind up in a heap.
Riding in a peloton can indeed be unnerving, especially if there are a bunch of beginners in it. Riding in a peloton of experienced cyclists is actually fairly comfortable. That’s not to say, however, if one rider goes down, especially at the front, he or she won’t take the majority of the peloton down too. If you are unlucky enough to be in the middle of a fast group, and someone up front goes down, there is almost nothing you can do to avoid wrecking – and bikes don’t have crumple zones. Bones seem to crumple (so to speak) fairly easily though.
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If you are unlucky enough to be in the middle of a fast group, and someone up front goes down, there is almost nothing you can do to avoid wreckingWonder what the advantage is of riding in a peloton, Dgeigh? There can't be much of a slip stream effect as there is in car racing because the peloton is not a solid mass at the leading edge of the wedge. No doubt, it is harder to pass a peloton than a single cyclist, but, on the other hand, if you are inside the peloton it's harder to get out of it to break away. I take it this latter consideration is not really a problem because the peloton is actually a 'team' and they would cooperate with anyone inside the 'heap' wishing to break out. Perhaps it is just moral support or pacing control. Long distance runners run with friendly pacers to keep them on their mark. Interesting phenomenon suggestive of Canadian Geese flying in a "V", in any event. Aha! Here we have the answer -- not a "V", but an "X": "Peloton Strategy: "X" marks the spot"http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=9720
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Actually it is the slip stream effect. I've never actually ridden in a peloton, but I have ridden many a mile with other riders and indeed it is easier to pedal when tailgating another rider than it is to pedal while riding alone.
I used to ride with a pretty lady named Glenna, and while I did my share of infront miles it was a lot more fun to be riding right behind her. Awesome view!
And apparently the effect is much greater in a peloton. I have carefully watched closed course races and seen that in the peloton there is a constant flow of riders from the back to the front of the pack. Those at the front get tired and drop all the way to the back, so everyone gets a turn in the lead.
The TdF is actually a team event with individual rider prizes; one of the grand strategies is for a team to "protect" its strongest rider by forming a peloton in front of him and letting him preserve his strength for the dash to the finish line.
TEd
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I used to ride with a pretty lady named Glenna, and ... it was a lot more fun to be riding right behind her. Awesome view!It gives a whole new meaning to the term "tail-gating", TEd Tem. I always thought bicycle racing was all blood, sweat and gears. But, in mixed company, it can be all about the view. It's not how you race, but how you make out at the finish line. There must have been more of a fight for Glenna's tail position than there was for the lead. Glenna obviously had a leg up on the rest of the field. And more than a leg, I suspect. This sounds more like a peeloton than a peloton to me, TEd Rem. As long as Glenna keeps her eyes peeled on the road ahead, everyone else can keep their eyes peeled on her rear. BTW this reminds me, TEd Rem, that the most beautiful things in life are not words, much as I admire words, but the things which we sense, through sight, and sound, and smell and touch, which excite our imaginations, and, in turn, our words.
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As long as Glenna keeps her eyes peeled on the road ahead ...Fortunately, there is a serious side to this ascertainment: [Q] From Mark Kleiman: “Can you enlighten me on the origin of the expression keep your eyes peeled or pealed?” [A] It’s spelt peeled, as in peeling an apple. It derives from an old verb pill, “to plunder”, which is the root of our modern word pillage. It came to us from the Latin root pilare, meaning “to take the hair off, pluck” (closely connected with our depilate), but which also had the figurative meaning of “plunder, cheat”, almost exactly the same as the figurative meaning of our modern verbs fleece or pluck. From about the 17th century on, pill was commonly spelt peel and took on the sense of “to remove or strip” in the weakened sense of removing an outer covering, such as a fruit. The figurative sense of keeping alert, by removing any covering of the eye that might impede vision, seems to have appeared in the US about 1850." http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-kee1.htm
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To me Plutarch, the analogy of peeled oranges and eyes is glaringly apparent. But, of course, some folks need the high authority of the WorldWideWeb to transform the obvious into hard fact. Now...stop avoiding your indiscretions. You and TEd both know that you have turned a serious discussion about "words" into a preadolescent discussion dealing with sex, viz. the female's "rear end". Well, I guess boys will be boys, but let me offer a little rhyme to get this thread back on its bicycle track... I used to ride behind a nice lady named Glenna,
But great was my desire to ride right between 'er
On a Id-ical day
In a sublimal way
I married a girl from Verbeena named Edwina.So, Plutarch, see how easy to take the high road if one's head is not in the gutter.
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a female's "rear end"A "female's rear end" can be a most admirable thing, themilum, and not only to a "preadolescent". Is it salacious to frolic with the forces of nature? I hope not. If Glenna rode high in the saddle, she may have been riding for more than the finish line herself. In any case, I managed to turn my attention to more scholarly investigations, and you steered me back to the rear of the peloton. You are a very cunning linguist, themilum.
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Now that, Plutarch, is funny.And I didn't even stick a smiley on the end of it, themilum. I was hoping it might go over the peloton. Looks like you've up-ended me again. Goes to prove what Dgeigh said. There's no "crumble zone" in a peloton. Needless to say, if you have to crash in a peloton, you're a lot better off with someone like Glenna in the lead. [Some in the rear might even be forgiven if they forget to brake.]
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So why do Canadian geese travel in a V, rather than in a peloton? I believe that by traveling in a V they use the same concept of aerodynamics that bikers do, but wouldn't it be more efficient if they used the same formation, this peloton, as bikers as well?
Some people say camping is boring. I say it's in tents.
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Carpal Tunnel
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A U of M site says: In flight, flocks form large V's or diagonally straight lines. This is because each bird doesn't fly directly behind the others, but off to an angle. This minimizes drag on each individual bird, allowing them to take advantage of the slipstream created by the bird in front of them. http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Branta_canadensis.htmlI honestly don't know whether straight line or V-formation makes for better aerodynamics, but I do know that if bicyclists tried to ride in a vee they'd be very limited in numbers, because roadways aren't as wide as the sky!
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That's a good point. I'm sure the bicyclists would rather settle for slightly less efficient aerodynamics than take turns riding off the road because of a lack of space.
Some people say camping is boring. I say it's in tents.
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I read it as if the X formation was within the larger peloton. a team would use the X to best take advantage of the larger formation.
formerly known as etaoin...
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Since every rider in the peloton gets credited the same time, where's the advantage in fancy formation work within it?
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A common mistake made by many road racing teams is that team members sometimes tend to clump together in one spot in the peloton.
This occurs from the lower amateur categories all the way to the top Euro pros, and often causes entire teams to be taken out of the event by a crash, or a split in the field.
A good way to approach positioning in the group is to have the team members spread out into an "X" formation (roughly).
The riders at the back of the X should still be in the front half of the peloton. They are in position to be the "eyes" of the group. If they see a pending attack or a dangerous rival preparing for a move, they can call or radio to the other team members.
The riders at the front of the X are in position to cover or attack. They should be near the front, but not at the front, so they are not working unnecessarily in the wind. Since most attacks come from a side and near the front, they will be perfectly placed to go with a break, neutralize an aggressor or make an attack.
The "protected" riders of the team should be in the middle (but still in the front half) of the group where they are sheltered from any wind. When the time is right, they can position themselves for the finish or a decisive attack.
from plu's link
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In situations where there are as little as two riders, drafting behind another rider allows the rider doing the drafting to conserve around 25 percent of his or her energy.
In a “paceline”, with three or more riders, each rider can take turns “pulling” at the front of the paceline for shorter periods of time before rotating to the back of the paceline, which allows all of the riders in the paceline to conserve up to 30 percent of their energy. The more riders in the paceline, the more energy everyone can conserve.
In a peloton, a rider will have much more of a chance to “sit in”, and not do any work pulling at the front. If a rider does no work at all, he or she can conserve 45 percent or more of his or her energy. Sitting in does not apply to the single rider only. Whole teams can sit in, if they chose to do so, which would give them a greater reserve of energy to launch an attack, or just conserve energy for a harder upcoming stage.
Of course, if you are in a team that has to chase down a “breakaway”, you have no choice but to go the front of the peloton and work like a madperson.
I do know that if bicyclists tried to ride in a vee they'd be very limited in numbers, because roadways aren't as wide as the sky!
If fact, there are times when riders ride in what one might visualize as a half-vee formation, and angle diagonally across the road. It is called forming, or riding in, an echelon. This is done when the wind is either perpendicular to the riders’ direction of travel, or coming at them at an angle. Since, as Jackie writes, “they'd be very limited in numbers because roadways aren't as wide as the sky” the peloton will usually break up into several echelons. If a team is trying to protect one of its rider’s placement on the General Classification (GC), they had better make sure to get him or her into the first echelon, because the rear echelons usually get “gapped” quite badly, and sometimes “dropped” altogether.
an "X" formation
Digressing from the benefits of drafting, and delving into strategy and tactics, the X formation would indeed allow a team to respond to many different situations. That’s not to say, however, that a team should always ride in an X formation. Different goals require different formations. In some situations, formations are moot. If a team, or rider, attacks with enough energy, the peloton can be split and fragmented, a breakaway group can be fragmented, and riders can “crack” and get dropped off of the back. If riders can’t “keep the wheel” of someone in front of them, i.e. draft, and wind up getting dropped, they certainly can’t take part in a formation.
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and thanks for that, J! good stuff. very interesting.
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Thanks to you both. I now have enough to start my magnum opus: "Everything you could never really be bothered knowing about cycling, but found out anyway".
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heh. well, I can only take credit for copying from plu's link... I think J knows what he's talking about.
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I used to ride with a pretty lady named Glenna, and ... it was a lot more fun to be riding right behind her
There once was a cyclist voluptuous
Whose tactics were always victorious
She never changed gear
As men dropped to her rear
And she won every race in a rumpus
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I must say, Mister Plutarch, your rump poem is indicative of rare talent. Bravo! (Maybe change "victorious" to "triumphus" for a closer rhyme) Only a fool would dare challenge such a brilliant, but low genius, so I thought about it briefly and then decided to offer some observations about the mechanics of the peloton instead. (1) The analogy of the V pattern of migrating geese is limited in explaining the nature of the peloton. Lateral vision is used by geese in correcting errant navigation and in finding feed and rest sites. Geese can't peloton because they would bump into the rump of the goose flying directly ahead; unlike TEd Remington the eyes of geese are on the sides of their head. (2) Collective Angular Momentum: ( Be advised, this idea is a bit exotic.) Draw these associations... __(a) Cyclists moving in a peloton can functionally be thought of as having the physical dynamics of a single unit. __(b) When a cyclist in a surge breaks out from the peloton a dissapportionate amount of the angular momentum of the unit is transfered to the cyclist breaking away, ergo, the slingshot. (This makes sense in concept) __(c) As well, the larger the peloton the lesser the disturbance of the aerodynamics by the loss of a single biker. (3) Spiders. The most agressive male spider almost always wins in courtship battles with other males, and so wins the dubious honor of mating with the female, "dubious" because sometimes, he afterwards becomes her meal. And like spider like human, it is usually the most aggressive male who wins the woman, money or fame. Man is, like it or not, a social animal. So nice it is to ride along in the ease and comfort of the peloton, perhaps or not, watching the pleasant rump in view just ahead...but then - out of the blue - some malcontent, some rude iconoclast, breaks away from the confort of the peloton and arrogantly pedals ahead. On occasion (but rarely) indignation and perseverance will overtake this bastard of egoism (but rarely). But almost always, the rude bastard wins. As he should. This is the real reason for the peloton. Get it?
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re "rump poem" - "brilliant, but low genius"Thanks for the 'half-ass' compliment, themilum. I guess that makes me the butt of praise. re "Get it?". Yes, I do get it. Some very penetrating insights there. The peloton is a very useful model for explaining a lot of things. The peleton exists solely for the purpose of solidifying and protecting the advantage of those who have claimed the lead. Canadian Geese fly in a "V" rather than a peloton because their motives are less complicated than ours. They are only focused on arriving at their destination as effortlessly as possible. Geese flying in formation have no strategies or even interest in fending off a Goose, flying outside the formation, from arriving at the destination before they do. There is food and sunshine enough for all when they get there, regardless of which Goose or which formation arrives first. Would that life was so sweetly simple and intelligent for us humans. We fight for territory even when there is a surplus of territory for everyone. How often, for instance, do we turn territory into terrortory? The peleton is a rare bird unknown to birds.
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